Okay so I need to talk how I am going to release chapters for RWBY REBN for now on.
Seeing how I keep taking weeks (if not months) just to release one chapter, I decided that I am going to release the episodes of each arc all at once instead of one at a time. By all at once I mean one chapter or day or maybe once a week. I could finish all the chapters for each season arc or if an arc is particulary long I can release half or even a quarter of an arc within a few days or a few weeks so production can happen quicker. Hopefully this might fix things with the release schedule and I apologize that I haven't kept my promise for weekly episodes. Since I have already divided my seasons into arcs anyway here is my plan for the rest of season 1.
The Jaune Arc: episodes 11-14
The Search Arc: episodes 15-20
Standalone chapters will be released seperately.
For these arcs I might send half of the arc at a later date or all of it or even just one chapter at a time, it just depends on my plans at the time. You guys can send me feedback on what I should do. To be honest I never planned to make this but with everything that is going on right now right now (both personal stuff and in the world), I need to say something.
This type of work will only be implemented for my longer form stories (maybe some short stories in the future but I don't know). However please be sure to give me as much feedback as possible. If you see this be sure to alert other fans of this story to the latest news (and while your at it please inform others of this series). However...
I do want it to make it crystal clear is that I will NEVER abandon one of my fics unless I have a GOOD FUCKING REASON.
That is by far my number 1 biggest pet peeve when it comes to fanfiction, how it's just abandoned with no hopes of continuing or being adopted. And more often than not there is hardly any explanation as to why people abandon their works, overall the end result only amounts to a waste of time for both the writer and the reader.
So yeah, I just had to get that off my chest. And just make it clear one more time for the people in the back, I will not be canceling my fics anytime soon, but there is going to be a longer wait on the chapters. If there is anyway I can make the wait easier (like a "story" or author's notes where it is just me talking about RWBY or other things) please let me know.
I know people don't like waiting for a new chapter of their favorite fic only to get an author's note so to make up for it, let me tell you what I think about the second half of volume 8 and ranking of episodes (WARNING: spoilers below).
The second half of volume 8 was just so much more frustrating than the first. While episodes 8, 11, 13, and 14 was okay on their own by RWBY standards we have episodes 9, 10, and 12 which are just ABYSMAL.
We have side characters be more proactive than the protagonist/take up screentime (Whitley, Oscar, and Jaune), double standards on who deserves trust and forgiveness and who doesn't (Emerald/Hazel and Ozpin/Ironwood), character assassination (basically all the protagonists but especially Ironwood), show breaking plot devices (The Staff of Creation and Ozpin's Cane Nuke), retcons (Aura and semblances), mistreatment and using characters for cheap shock value (Penny), a lackluster final villain who has nothing going for her fighting wise except for her immortality (Salem), characters apologizing for no reason/one sided apologizes (Ren and Ozpin), flip flopping between villians (first Salem, then Ironwood, and finally Cinder), a villian who still hasn't learned a damn thing (Cinder), the disregard for the technology and livelihoods of Atlas and Mantle citizens with the fact that they caused a refugee crisis in Vacuo (all of RWBY's group and their allies), protagonist cented morality at an all time high (the protagonists), characters being forced to join the RWBY hive mind (Winter, Ren, Ozpin, and more), staying in a house for most of the volume (RNBW), trying to help but end up being useless (JRY), characters who shit on someone's grave and only died because of them (Qrow and especially Robyn), characters who are straight up forgotten about (Pietro, Maria, team FNKI, the Atlas Academy students, and all the Atlas millitary), and to sum it all up the fact that the CRWBY just finished the volume the day before the final episode was supposed to be released.
Judging from this I was not a fan of volume 8 (epecially not the second half) and I think that overall volume 8 is worse than volume 5 making volume 8 the worst volume of RWBY. Yeah I said it and I don't regret it, while volume 5 was much more boring until the Battle of Haven where it was just frustrating, volume 8 was frustrating all the way through. And to me I rather be bored than frustrated. My main (and only) requirement is that the villains won and the heroes lost and even though that technically happened (even though it was in the last couple episodes) it was not emotionally satifiying and everything I put up with never made the pay off worth it to me. Not even the fights and music was good this volume and ultimately that is the edge that helped me decide that volume 8 was worse than volume 5.
Don't get me wrong the fights are objectively worse but there are fights that are memorable and good. We have Weiss vs the Lancers, Yang vs the bandits, Raven vs Cinder, and even Blake vs Illia (featuring Sun). While the fight chorography in volume 8 is technically better none of the fights are anything special or memorable (with the exception of Penny vs the Ace-Ops) and more so in volume 8 important questions about powerscailing are raised.
But what really disappointed me was the volume 8 soundtrack. Despite all of the shows failures I have still consistantly praised the soundtrack (even in volume 5), so this hurts when I see the soundtrack is just forgettable. Yes I know the full soundtrack isn't out yet (and even if it is good it won't save the volume for me and it would still be the weakest soundtrack for me) but still hardly any of the songs are memorable. We have the intro, The Sky is Falling, the song for Cinder cleaning in episode 6, the episode 10 reunion song, Be Strong and Hit Stuff, and Friend. It is the first time where I thought the songs felt repetative and stale, even with volume 7 we have songs like Celebrate, Hero, War, Until the End, and Fear that are great but comparing this soundtrack to volume 5 we have Smile, Ignite, Path to Isolation, The Triumph, All Things Must Die, All That Matters, and This Time (all songs that really like that have lots of memorability).
But the biggest example of this is the song "Friend" aka the volume 8 credit song
I'm not gonna lie, I HATED how they used "Friend" as the credit song (and the song in general just felt wrong with how Penny's story ultimately ended with her suicide). This is supposed to be the first volume since 3 in where the heroes lost and decided to have a happy song about Penny? Even though the song is supposed to be a funeral like song similar to "Cold", "Friend" felt way too upbeat for Penny's death and the volume as a whole. Also it's the first credit song since Volume 1's Wings that I didn't care for. All of the credit songs (including Wings) matched the tone of the volumes that came with it, but no "Friend" had to go in there and ruin it. And quite frankly with exception of "The Sky is Falling" in episode 4 and the intro, we hardly got any songs reflecting how bad the situation is in volume 8. The credit song for volume 7 "Fear" was great because I thought volume 8 would be darker in terms of song material but no. I also realized the implications of using this song as a volume closer. The show is celebrating the life of Penny instead of lamenting the loss of several people who didn't make it to the portals, the loss of Atlas and Mantle, the triumph of the villains and more. I would have been fine with another villain song (like a sequel to "Divide" or follow up to Cinder's song. But since the show is good with using songs from Casey's band: Ok Goodnight (see episode 6's "Awake" that played during Cinder vs Rhodes), they could have used the song "Rebirth" from Ok Goodnight as the credit song. If it's too short either extend the song or make a new thematically appropriate song. They should have either saved volume 7's "Until the End" for the volume 8 credit song and moved "Friend" for volume 9, or even a Winter song that serves as either a companion to Hero or to Mirror, Mirror.
Every end credits song at least ties into something that occurs or is resolved in some form in the final episodes.
Wings- Blake returning to Team RWBY
Sacrifice- Raven showing up to warn Yang
Divide- Salem reveal
Armed and Ready- Yang heading off to Mistral after "recovering"
This Time- Blake and the Menagerie armed forces saving Haven and taking back the White Fang
Nevermore- Resolution to the Bumbleby vs. Adam storyline
Fear- In response to Ozpin's speech on fear and Ironwood's descent into madness
Therefore, a Winter song that ties into her developments with Ironwood, Weiss, and Penny and becoming the Winter Maiden would have worked much better than a song compared to "Friend"
Just to be clear I am not dropping the show and I had made my commitment to my fanfiction. But I am just done with RWBY and going into volume 9 I am done trying to enjoy myself with this show and from here on out I will be much more critical. Nothing about this show will change for the better unless something drastic happens. But hey, the real RWBY is the friends we make along the way.
Now here is my ranking which I will tell you the best and worst parts of each episodes of volume 8
Best Half
1. Fault
Best Thing: Ren calling out Yang
Worst Thing: Weiss threaten Whitley
2. Dark
Best Thing: The horror aspect
Worst Thing: Ruby's conversation with Blake
3. Strings
Best Thing: Penny vs the Ace-Ops
Worst Thing: Ironwood teaming up with Watts
4. Amity
Best Thing: Penny's interactions with Pietro
Worst Thing: Ruby's speech
5. Refuge
Best Thing: The Hound
Worst Thing: Robyn
6. Divide
Best Thing: The group splitting up
Worst Thing: The start of Ironwood's character assassination
7. Worthy
Best Thing: Cinder trying to a good villain
Worst Thing: None of team RWBY (save for Blake) cares or tries to save Yang from falling
Worst Half
8. Risk
Best Thing: Cute Ren and Nora moments
Worst Thing: The team trusting Emerald quickly while Ozpin begs for forgiveness
9. The Final Word
Best Thing: Winter grieving for Weiss "death"
Worst Thing: Penny's suicide and everything it meant for her character throughout volumes 7 and 8
10. Midnight
Best Thing: The invasion starts
Worst Thing: Cinder's Backstory
11. War
Best Thing: Klein's return
Worst Thing: Hardly seeing any of Salem's invasion
12. Witch
Best Thing: Salem vs Hazel
Worst Thing: Salem's ineffectiveness as a villian (especailly in combat)
13. Ultimatum
Best Thing: Watts calling out Cinder
Worst Thing: The complete destruction of Ironwood's character
14. Creation
Best Thing: Ambrosius's character
Worst Thing: The existance of the Staff of Creation and the ways the characters should have used it.
Anyway hopefully this makes up for the lack of a episode, please leave a review to tell me what you think. Until next time...